Light Aircraft Taking Off From Littleover

Have light aircraft taken off from Littleover?  Well there has been many aircraft that have flown over Littleover having taken off from nearby.  In the 1920’s and 30’s Derby was searching for a site for an airstrip or air field close too or in the Borough of Derby including a site near Littleover.

Passenger flights were advertised as “Flying at Derby” in the Derbyshire Advertiser and Journal on the 4th June 1926.  The flights were to take place later that month between the 11th and 22nd June.  A field at The Pastures, Littleover was to be used as a temporary airfield.

Also, in June 1926 flying was again advertised in the Derbyshire Advertiser and Journal on the 11th June 1926.  Passenger flights were to be provided by Berkshire Aviation Tours with tickets at 5s. 6d. (27.5p) each.  The flights taking off from Hell Meadow, Stenson Lane, Derby, between the 17th and 28th June.  Hell Meadow Farm was not in the Parish of Littleover but for a time was included in the Littleover postal district.

Wonderful displays of flying took place on Sunday, 20th June, with an exhibition of flying by a lady pilot and a daring exhibition of crazy flying, including wing walking at a speed of 100 mph.  Admission to Hell Meadow was 6d. for adults and 3d. for children (2.5p and approx. 1p).  The passenger flights were held daily, including on Sundays.  Further wonderful exhibitions of flying were to take place on Sunday, 27th June

Whether the passenger flights from The Pastures, Littleover and those taking place from the Hell Meadow in June 1926 were connected is unknown.

The Derby Borough Council in 1929 selected a number of sites for a new municipal aerodrome, which was reported in the Derbyshire Advertiser and Journal on the 25th October 1929.  Certificates of approval had been issued by the Air Ministry for proposed aerodrome sites at Alvaston, Radbourne Common and Hell Meadow, Stenson.  The Ministry had declined to sanction the construction of a Derby Municipal Aerodrome on a proposed site at Deadman’s Lane, Crewton (Wilmorton).  The site at Deadman’s Lane was the selected site of the then newly formed Derby and District Aero Club, and they were to utilise that site for the time being.

Hell Meadow was possibly the site of the Stenson Road Civil Aerodrome at the start of the 1930’s. The site was also known as Stenson Fields.  The location of the airstrip may have been a field that was between the Hell Meadow Wood and the Derby to Birmingham railway lines.  

In 1929 Alan Cobham (later Sir), who had been member of the Royal Flying Corps in World War I and was a famous pioneer of long-distance aviation, mounted his first tour of Britain.  This tour was called the Municipal Aerodrome Campaign, this was an ambitious plan to encourage town councils to build local airports.  In 1932 he started the National Aviation Day display tour, which was a combination of barnstorming and joyriding.  The tour known as “Cobham’s Flying Circus” visited Derby and was flying from the Stenson Road Flying Ground.  Similar tours took place in the years 1933 to 1935 and presumably the same venue was used when they visited Derby.  A photograph was taken c1935, when the Flying Circus flew over Littleover. 

The Derby Borough Council was amongst the most reluctant of the many towns and cities in England to establish an aerodrome/airport facility.  In 1938 the Council relented and decided that their municipal airport would be at Burnaston which is five miles to the south west of Derby.  Burnaston Airport became operational in the autumn of 1938 and the official opening took place on the 17th June 1939.  During its lifetime Burnaston Airport has been known as Derby Airport, Derby Municipal Airport and RAF Burnaston.  It started out as a civil aerodrome, then was a military aerodrome, later civil/military aerodrome and later still an airport and lastly was a civil aerodrome once more.

The airport started in 1938 with Air Schools operating both the No.30 Elementary and Service Flying Training School (EFSTS) and Derby Aero Club.  During World War 2 the airport was under RAF Flying Training Command, 51 Group, No.16 and No.30 Elementary Flying Training School’s (EFTS).  Post war the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve still had a reasonable training commitment, and continued part of this training as No.65 Reserve Centre RAFVR., operating the aircraft of No.16 Reserve Flying School.  The airport continued to be operated by Air Schools and Derby Aero Club.

Charter/air taxi and airline flights after 1945 were by Derby Aviation, later Derby Airways and later to become British Midland Airways.  Many will still remember in the 1940’s, Tiger Moths of the EFTS flying over Littleover practicing formation flying or dog-fights, or later the larger airliners flying just above treetop height when taking off or landing.